Dealing With OSHA's New Enforcement Landscape

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has revved up rulemaking and workplace inspection initiatives, changing the enforcement landscape more during the past two years than we saw in the preceding 30. Employers, general counsels and human resource departments should steel themselves for new complexity in dealing with OSHA and Occupational Safety and Health Act compliance. Those who do not comply may not only face significant frustration, but also considerable economic liability.

OSHA is enforcing the nation's workplace safety laws through a variety of new approaches. These include expanding the scope of remedies sought to uninspected premises (in geographically dispersed operations); seeking information that is unrelated to employee complaints that brought OSHA to the worksite in the first place; substantially increasing maximum penalties; and significantly increasing employer responsibilities for injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting.